Art Conservation Open Day

Come and learn about artwork conservation, sustainable collections, and Argyll’s internationally significant collection of African modern art!

In March 2023, Argyll’s African artworks will be examined by a professional conservator. Following these examinations, we invite you to join us here at Dunoon Burgh Hall  on Saturday, March 4th 2023 for an Art Conservation Open Day, between 10am-4pm.

Twelve artworks will be available for public investigation and discussion. You are invited to examine them, to try out ‘conservation checking’, to learn about conservation techniques and priorities, and to share ideas about their future.

There will be talks, Q&As and demonstrations from guest experts:

11am: Christina Young, Professor of Technical Art History and Conservation at University of Glasgow will discuss what technical art history is and what it might teach us about Argyll’s African artworks.

1pm: Nancy Dantas, Art Historian and C-MAP Africa Fellow at the Museum of Modern Art (New York) will introduce MoMA’s C-MAP Africa project and current research on African modern art.

To round off the day, Dr Kate Cowcher will be available to give a brief tour of the artworks – you can catch up with information from the 2021 exhibition Dar to Dunoon: Modern African Art from the Argyll Collection (which showcased twelve works of modern art from East and South Africa, made in the 1960s and 70s) by clicking the link here: Exhibition – Dar to Dunoon

You can register for the talks by clicking on the links below:

Christina Young – 11am

Nancy Dantas – 1.00pm

The Art Conservation Open Day is free and open to the public.

The Art Conservation Open Day is a collaboration between University of St Andrews School of Art History and the Argyll Collection, Argyll and Bute Council.

Support for initial conservation work and outreach on this collection has been provided by the Impact and Innovation Fund of the University of St Andrews and CHARTS Argyll & Isles.